First trip of 2016

 

Castleton, 8th to 10th January 2016

Our first trip of 2016, and our first ever trip in the month of January.

New year resolutions relating to caravanning?  To do more three night trips instead of two, and not to try so many new sites.  Last year we tried a few new ones and not all of them were as good as we thought they would be.  Old favourites rule this year!

Not many sites open at this time of year.  Castleton CC site is one of the few that is, and it happens to be one of our favourites, so we booked it straight away when it popped up in the Caravan Club’s late availability section.  Usually this site is permanently full, but not this weekend.

Friday

We arrived early and found the site almost deserted, so plenty of pitches to choose from.  We chose a pitch in a small area just off the main site.  Must be a popular spot because it filled up, whilst the rest of the site remained pretty empty.  No pic of the caravan this time, we forgot to take one!

New visitors to our bird feeder this weekend...a flock of long tailed tits...

Instead of heading to the nearest pub, as we usually do, we drove to the top of Mam tor, just too late to catch a not very good sunset.  We knew we’d missed it when we passed a man with an expensive camera and tripod heading back to his car.

After dinner in the caravan we walked into the village and had a couple of drinks in the Cheshire Cheese Inn.

Saturday

Awoke to the sound of rain, but it soon stopped, replaced by white cloud and a bit of drizzle.  Undaunted, we set off for a walk up to Losehill, via Hope.

We’ve been on this ridge before, but not the way we went today, so a lot of it was new to us.  The rain held off until just before we got back to the caravan.  Had we not stopped in Castleton for a quick pint in Ye Olde Nags Head we would have missed it altogether.

 

The forecast for the night was heavy rain, and so it was.  We’d booked a table at the Castle Inn, so we had to venture out.  Good job we booked, there was a sign saying that it was open for residents and pre booked tables only when we got there.  Possibly because of a staffing crisis, there were lots of vacancies on a notice board outside!

After dinner we had another drink in the Cheshire Cheese, then one in Ye Olde Nags Head, which had entertainment in the form of Mick Hall.  He was ok, so we stayed until chucking out time.

Sunday

Of course, a lovely day today, with blue skies and no sign of rain.  If only we had implemented our new year resolution of more three night trips!

Got back to the storage site without any problems and drained all the water out of the caravan, as you have to at this time of year.

Coming soon…

Hopefully a trip later in January, it all depends on the weather.

Hawkshead

20th to 23rd November 2015

The Croft, Hawkshead.  Our fourth visit to this site, once in a tent and twice previously in a caravan.  We didn’t really like it on our first two visits, we found it too noisy, but it’s had a makeover and gone upmarket a bit and we really enjoyed our last visit around the same time last year.
 

Friday

The journey from Ambleside is a bit hairy, along narrow twisting roads, but luckily we didn’t encounter a bus or lorry coming the other way.

Arrived early and found the site almost empty, so we had no trouble finding a decent pitch.  It did fill up a bit, but there were plenty of empty pitches all weekend.  Surprising, given it’s location.
 

No campers at this time of year, just as well because the ground was very wet after lots of heavy rain.  Great facilities, with a couple of unisex bathrooms as well as the usual ladies and gents block.  One even has a bath, which J took advantage of!  There is even a TV room, but we didn’t use it.
 

As well as the usual suspects, a goldfinch visited our bird feeder this weekend.  We get very excited when we spot a new bird now!  It didn’t stay long and there was no time to get the camera out, so here is a pic of the usual suspects instead.
 

After setting everything up we walked across the road to the village of Hawkshead.  It is literally across the road!

First pub of the afternoon/evening was the Black Horse, then the Red Lion, then dinner in the Sun Inn.  All excellent pubs.  At one point we were the only ones in the Red Lion without a dog, and it was quite busy!

Woke up around 3am because the caravan was being buffetted by wind.  By far the windiest night we have ever spent in a caravan!  How windy does it have to be for a caravan to get blown over?  We nearly found out, or so it seemed.  It lasted a couple of hours, so we didn’t get much sleep!

Saturday

Something a bit different today…the annual Grizedale stages rally in nearby Grizedale forest.  We didn’t know it was on when we booked and probably wouldn’t have come had we known, but as all the footpaths in the forest were closed and we couldn’t go walking there, we thought we would go along and have a look.

Lots of standing around in the freezing cold, waiting for it to start, but it was quite good once it started.

 

Some of the cars were quite old, including a few mk2 Escorts, and a “real” Mini got the biggest cheer of the day.  No crashes, although a couple of cars came close to going in the ditch you can see in the pics.  We watched all 75 cars, but left before they came back for round 2 in the afternoon…too cold!

Something different in the evening, too.

 

We drove to Ambleside for the annual parade of lanterns, along with all the departing rally contestants and spectators.  Gridlock at Clappersgate!

It took so long to get there and find somewhere to park we missed the parade, but we did get to see some fireworks.



Had an early night, to catch up on lost sleep from the night before!

Sunday

Another nice day, excellent conditions for walking. We walked from the site to the top of Latterbarrow, then on to Wray Castle and along the western shore of lake Windermere.  It ended up quite a long walk at close to 10 miles.
 

The summit of Latterbarrow

 

Wray castle…we were too muddy to go inside and will visit another day
 

When we got back to the site there was only one other caravan left, and lots of blackbirds flocking around our bird feeder!  We chased them.  The blackbirds, not the other caravanners!  We only like pretty birds.



A small motorhome arrived later, but we still had a bathroom each!

The pubs in Hawkshead were much the same…almost empty, which is how we like them.  We had a couple of drinks in the Red Lion and then switched to the Black Horse.

A very cold night.

Monday

A misty start to the day, but it soon cleared and we were on our way by 10am.  When we left there was only one caravan left.

An excellent trip, Hawkshead is a lovely village and the site is right on top of it.  This is exactly why we decided against getting a static caravan.  We will return, probably around the same time next year, for a bit longer maybe.

Coming soon…

A two night trip to Southport, which will almost certainly be our last trip of the year.

Wet weekend in Windermere

6th to 8th November

Not a good weather forecast this weekend, and it lived down to expectations!  Undaunted, we headed to one of our most visited sites – the Windermere C&CC site.

Friday

Arrived early, just before the first wave of rain!  Plenty of pitches to choose from, and we got a good one.

Lots of interest in our bird feeder this weekend, including blue tits, great tits, coal tits, a chaffinch, a nuthatch, male and female blackbirds, all identified from the RSPB book of birds which is proving invaluable.

It started to rain soon after we arrived, so we had to wait for it to ease off before heading to nearby Staveley for drinks and dinner in the Hawkshead brewery beer hall.  Stayed out until about 9.

Saturday

Awoke to the sound of heavy rain, and it continued all morning.  Just for something to do, we drove to Hawkshead and had a look around the shops, until it brightened up.  We might go back to Hawkshead in a couple of weeks if the weather is ok.

The weather seemed to be improving so we headed back to the site and then went for a walk to Cunswick Scar, a small hill not far from the site.

Of course, it started to rain again and we got soaked.  Thank goodness for our waterproof coats.  It was quite slippery in places…

In the evening we stayed in the caravan.

Sunday

Just about managed to pack everything away before it started to rain again.

Coming soon…

Nothing booked, but we might have a weekend in Hawkshead in a couple of weeks.